Out of Reach
by Jargonelle
Summary: One shot: She only ever met one man who could change destiny. Isis x Shaadi, Kaiba x Isis


Out of Reach by Jargonelle  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Summary: She only ever met one man who could change destiny.  
  
Pairings: Shaadi x Isis, Isis x Kaiba  
  
Spoilers: Vague reference to the Isis/Kaiba duel in Battle City  
  
Warnings: a few swear words, a man divesting a woman of her clothes, off- screen death  
  
Notes: Supposed to be Kaiba x Isis x Shaadi (Crestshipping) for Loki-chan's challenge, but I couldn't manage it as a threesome. Hope this counts instead.  
  
Focus shifts alternately between Kaiba and Isis except for the two end scenes.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!  
  
~~  
  
It wasn't much.  
  
It was a relationship that Kaiba certainly didn't encourage, but he welcomed the sporadic email just the same. The occasional enquiry about his health or Mokuba's progress, which had no ulterior motive other than polite conversation, brightened the stark corporatism of his business life. The succinct, undemanding nature of Isis' messages suited him far better than the forced chatter of Yuugi and Anzu's combined letters, even with her chiding suggestions about changing his attitude, which he promised he would review, one day.  
  
He wouldn't respond in kind to Anzu's hand-written script. The way her words ran too close together when she was describing something exciting or how she would make a deeper imprint into the paper than usual when she was stuck for words, gave far too much away about her mental state. The uniformity and anonymity of email was a shield. Isis couldn't tell how long it took him to decide upon how to address her from his words alone.  
  
Not to mention the practicality of it, with Isis in Egypt and him back in Domino.  
  
They rarely exchanged more than a few sentences at a time.  
  
Once, he had started to tell her about his annoyance with the current international exchange rates, but it had turned into a half-page rant before he had really noticed. It was deleted of course, he feared that she would be able to read into it more than he intended to reveal. The message he wrote instead was short and factual, but it was enough. Isis continued to keep in contact, though it was always down to her to initiate it.  
  
It wasn't much.  
  
Did anyone really expect anything more?  
  
~~  
  
There was an insect fluttering against her closed window.  
  
From her awkwardly familiar position at her desk, she couldn't tell whether it was trapped outside, seeking shelter, or trapped inside, yearning for freedom.  
  
Inevitably, as she approached, she found it to be the latter. She lifted the latch, felt the cool air brush over her fingertips and watched enviously as it flapped away into the distant evening.  
  
She had resumed her post in the Egyptian civil service, monitoring the movement of ancient artefacts and assessing the potential profit of loaning them to conglomerates of museums or collectors. It was rewarding and she felt pathetically grateful for her work. It required focused concentration and the balance of mathematical probabilities – there was little use for emotions, none at all for regret.  
  
There was nothing she could have done differently, nothing major anyway.  
  
She had known that one day Shaadi would find peace. The Sennen Items would be lost forever and he would finally be free of the mistakes of a long-dead civilisation. She wanted that for him, had wanted to end his restlessness.  
  
Maybe she could have been better though and they wouldn't have parted on such draining terms. She could have smiled more often, touched him warmly without waiting for prompting; she could have kissed him goodnight of her own accord, instead of hesitating until he reached out for her. He always would though.  
  
His hands would wind their way through her long dark hair, gently pulling her close to him. His fingers would dance across her face, her neck, along the top of her dress, slithering over her breasts. He would slide his roughened palms underneath the heavy strips of cloth and slowly undress her, marking her with kisses. She would let him, would act disinterested as long as she could until eventually she would slip, would give in and would finally give up her control. He would smile, pleased with himself and they would hastily make their way to her bed, where they would make love and empty promises and she would lie awake, hating Kaiba Seto.  
  
~~  
  
He wasn't oblivious. He could see resentment shimmering behind her carefully measured words, but he was used to people envying him and paid it little heed. He didn't want another liar clogging up his inbox.  
  
Besides, it was good to see her faltering. She had spent too long trying to be someone she wasn't, in trying to be the essence of calm and balance. He could see her fire. Her strength wasn't in her unflappability or her perfect serenity, it was in her anger, in her courage.  
  
He wouldn't have noticed, wouldn't have cared to look in anyone else, but something about her attracted his attention. It could have been her relationship with her brother – they were both parents too young, both having responsibilities that few other people his age understood. He tried to tell himself that was the case.  
  
More likely, it was his desire for the impossible.  
  
It was what made someone a true artist, a true creator. He understood that now.  
  
~~  
  
It was irrational to hate him, she knew, it wasn't his fault.  
  
Kaiba was too arrogant, too self-centred, to even consider how changing his destiny would screw up everyone else's.  
  
She had seen it in that moment, that awful, wonderful moment, when he had sacrificed his God to summon his soul. He had saved the world then, even though he hadn't understood, but he had doomed her. Everything from then on had happened as she had predicted, including Shaadi's departure.  
  
That was why she kept in touch with him. She knew they would meet again and she knew that they wouldn't be strangers when they did. She had seen everything too clearly.  
  
She was still as subservient to fate as she had been when she bore the Sennen Tauk. It was just that no one else could see it.  
  
~~  
  
She could be his motivation.  
  
Pegasus had used his twisted desire for his lover in order to redevelop the most popular game on Earth. He may have been a total bastard but he had created something beautiful.  
  
Unrequited, doomed, misplaced love was everywhere. It gave strength to the exhausted and vision to the blind. KaibaCorp's profits had been in decline and its President was in need of inspiration.  
  
It seemed to work well enough for everyone else. Mokuba's capacity for computer programming stemmed from his infatuation with a virtual character.  
  
At quarter past two in the afternoon, one overcast day in October, Kaiba decided to fall 'in love' with his irregular email correspondent. As an early birthday present, he allowed himself an extra two hours work on his latest pet-project and was amazed at the progress he made.  
  
It was probably a coincidence.  
  
No one needed to know about this particular piece of research; he'd never see her again anyway.  
  
~~  
  
She was on her way to Domino.  
  
There was no excuse, no reunion, no emergency, no wedding, no funeral. She was heading there to visit Kaiba because it was destined to happen. She would live as Shaadi had lived.  
  
They would meet at a crossroads. They would talk, about Mokuba and Malik and he would, with some feigned reluctance, invite her to his latest KaibaCorp unveiling, as she had once invited him to see her exhibition. There would be one strained moment, where he would look at her differently, as if seeing a person instead of a persona, but it would fade and she would leave. Fate would be done with her.  
  
She would be free.  
  
~~  
  
He hadn't been free in days.  
  
His schedule had been packed with last minute test simulations and meetings with advertising and PR executives. The final straw had come when his often- ignored stylist had unveiled the bright green look that was apparently perfect for the upcoming season and presented him with a co-ordinating coat and hat.  
  
He had stormed, dramatically, out of the building, leaving his employees to scurry around in frenzied disarray. They'd work better under pressure and the longer he was away, the more panicked they would get.  
  
He would just take his car out for a spin, driving recklessly always relaxed him.  
  
But guess who he met by the side of the road.  
  
~~  
  
She watched him in his element, at home in the impersonal world of technology and nameless associates, whilst she hovered at the edge of his vision, a wanderer. The others didn't stay long. He drove them away with a sharp bark to his security guards, but she stood her ground. She had come too far to leave without an adequate conclusion.  
  
Alone in his conference room, he finally turned to her, to look at her properly.  
  
This was it.  
  
~~  
  
He didn't react visibly but he was shaken to his core. This was her, the woman for whom he'd invented a virtual world.  
  
She was everything and nothing like he'd imagined.  
  
He caught her gaze for a fraction of a second and seemed to see right through her. Yet in truth, he really didn't want to know. She had to be elusive, mysterious, otherwise she wouldn't be worth dreaming for.  
  
~~  
  
She smiled as he froze.  
  
Carefully, so not to startle him, she pressed a swift, impersonal kiss to his cheek and turned to leave. He didn't try to stop her.  
  
~~  
  
It wasn't much, but it was exactly what he was hoping would happen.  
  
~~  
  
It wasn't enough.  
  
~~  
  
"She knew she'd die over here, didn't she?"  
  
"She updated her will last week. She left everything to the man responsible for her younger brother, who is still undergoing psychiatric treatment for a personality disorder."  
  
"I don't get it... this isn't being treated as suspicious? She was in her twenties."  
  
"No sign that it was suicide. No sign that it was murder. It was just an unfortunate freak accident. Shit happens."  
  
"Yeah... but... come on... She was last seen alive at a KaibaCorp function. I'm sure they could organise it so that no one suspected anything."  
  
"I wouldn't say that too loudly, they might come and get you too, now that you've discovered their deadly secret."  
  
"Knock it off."  
  
~~  
  
This was perfect, better than perfect.  
  
She was truly impossible to reach now.  
  
~~  
  
THE END 


End file.
